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Thank you to everyone who participated in the discussion of the proposal to allow fully-vaccinated people to hold in-person meetups, where local health authorities permit. I’ll summarize the concerns and opinions shared in the post, and then discuss a decision.
If you don’t want to read that far, here’s the tl;dr:
The WordPress community team is removing the barrier to organizing in-person meetup events for fully-vaccinated people, in places where vaccines are freely available.
Discussion Summary
Some commenters mistakenly thought that local organizers would be collecting health care data from group members, and expressed concern. It was clarified that while the community team would encourage local organizers to set the expectation that only fully-vaccinated people should attend in-person meetup events, no organizer should request or collect information from members about their vaccination status. Meetup events for fully-vaccinated people would operate on the honor system.
A question was raised around what should happen if organizers somehow discovered that someone who was not vaccinated, was attending in-person events intended for fully-vaccinated people. While it’s certainly possible that this will happen, I think it should be handled just like any other mismatch between expected behavior and actual behavior — with a private discussion to explain the expectation and a direct request that someone meet that expectation next time. Again, local organizers should not request or collect vaccination status information from members.
Some people shared deep concerns that this would result in a “two-tier” meetup program, dividing local communities between the vaccinated (meeting in-person) and unvaccinated (meeting online). It was pointed out that as vaccination rollout continues, transmission risk will inevitably fall. The research seems to support this, showing that vaccination is effective in “preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death.” (See also this example.)
Holding in-person meetups for fully-vaccinated people would only be possible in local communities where vaccines are freely available to all. And when infection levels fall to a point that a local community would pass the safety checklist, then both vaccinated and unvaccinated people would be free to meet (with the appropriate precautions). So while I agree that it’s only a matter of time when fully-vaxxed-only meetups are a thing of the past, I do think it’s important to make that possible for our communities. If nothing else, it might encourage WordPress enthusiasts to get vaccinated as soon as they can! Organizers are welcome to include an online component to in-person gatherings if the event format and venue allow it.
Some tenured community organizers shared their support for this idea, and at least one person shared that they would not yet be comfortable with organizing in-person events, even for fully-vaccinated people. I think it’ll be important to share with organizers that local communities can continue to meet online, or organize online event series, for the foreseeable future — if we ever go back to an expectation that WordPress meetup groups meet in-person only (and I doubt that we will), then I think that will happen a long time from now.
Context
When COVID made it unsafe to meet in person, WordPress event programs responded more quickly than many public health authorities were able to. In fact, many governments didn’t provide safety recommendations until long after WordPress had asked local organizers to refrain from gathering people in-person. It’s not unusual for governments to move slowly in response to new crises, but luckily our organization is a little more nimble.
As we all know, the world has spent more than a year responding to the pandemic, and vaccines continue to roll out globally. The WordPress global community team must eventually return to our previous expectation that local organizers will simply follow local laws and public health guidelines.
Many countries are still fighting a pitched battle against COVID, and not all of their governments are willing or able to set safe public health standards. For organizers in those countries, please know that the global WordPress community is concerned for your health and safety. You are welcome to continue to use the in-person safety checklist if it is helpful, even when all WordPress program-based limits on in-person gatherings are lifted globally. We trust our organizers to make wise choices, and hope to provide you all the tools you need to make those choices easier.
Decision
This proposal is somewhat contentious, and one of the ways I serve the community team is to make potentially-unpopular decisions. I am comfortable doing so in this case, as enough tenured, active members of the community team seem to agree with this proposal. I realize there are some on the team who do not agree, and I hope that these guidelines are flexible enough that you are able to disagree and commit in this case.
The WordPress community team is not expecting or requiring local organizers to organize in-person events for fully-vaccinated people — we’re simply removing the barrier to doing so. That barrier is removed only under certain conditions, though, so I want to communicate those clearly.
If:
local public health authorities say people can gather in person, AND
vaccines are available for anyone who wants one in your region, THEN
Local community organizers can (if they want to) plan in-person meetup events for fully-vaccinated people, following local health guidelines!
Here’s a visualization of those conditions, in case it helps:
Important:
No organizer should request or collect information from members about their vaccination status.
Additional safety measures that go beyond local health guidelines are OK! Organizers should consider meeting outside, asking attendees to wear masks, or limiting attendance of indoor events.
Online meetup events can continue for the foreseeable future.
Keep in mind that we are still learning about the effectiveness of vaccines for people with weakened immune systems or against new variants of the virus. If there are meetup group members who feel uncomfortable going to in-person meetups but want to continue attending events, organizers can encourage and help people host online events.
Next Steps and Feedback
I’ll add the new guidance to all the appropriate places in the meetup organizer’s handbook, and write a summarized version of this decision for the next meetup newsletter. If you have questions, concerns, or feedback… please share them in a comment on this post!
@andreamiddleton I made a change to the tl;dr based on this morning’s team chat. I changed the tl;dr to specifically say meetup events. It would be great if you would update the amazing flowchart as well. There was some confusion as ‘events’ implied more than just meetups.
The question of recently negative COVID tests, or the new EU Digital COVID Certificate app, didn’t come up in the discussion of this topic in May, probably because it wasn’t widely adopted yet.
If there are WP community organizers who’d like to suggest adding “recently tested negative for COVID” (in an area where testing is freely available) as an alternative to full vaccination, could you please comment here?
“Recently tested negative for COVID” implies someone has to show a negative test result, which would be illegal in most European countries.
However, this is exactly what the CoronaCheck (aka EU Digital Covid Certificate) app solves. Instead of asking for medical information, it simply tells the checker (e.g. an event organizer) this person is cleared for access to your event. How that clearance is achieved (through a recent negative PCR test, by recent recovery from COVID, or being fully vaxxed) isn’t disclosed. Therefore the event organizer doesn’t handle any medical data.
Looking at the rules and regulations in The Netherlands, I don’t think I’d even be allowed to organize a meetup at our regular venue without using the free ‘testing for access’ service.
Thanks for weighing in here, Taco! Now that I’ve thought about this for a few days, it seems like relying on the CoronaCheck app in Europe isn’t just a convenience, but a necessity, for local organizers in countries using that app. And how convenient that your regular venue would check the info on people’s apps for you!
Since Rocio’s comment included a proposed change, which I think matches how you think we could change this approach to in-person meetup safety, I’ll reply to her comment with my feedback. 🙂
I agree with the proposal, but I’d like to add some thoughts about @swissspidy‘s comment on Twitter 🙂
In several countries of EU, there are free quick tests at the door of many places: theatres, restaurants, etc. people take a quick test and if they’re negative, they can enter the place.
The proposal is not taking into account these other solutions that are already working very well in many countries in the EU.
Another example, In Spain, events are allowed to everyone but people outside their bubble have to sit down with a distance of 1.5 meters when it’s outdoors, and wearing masks plus the distance if it’s indoors.
In order to have into consideration these other realities, I’d propose to change your flow chart including this:
“Are vaccines or quick tests freely available to all?”
If yes:
“Organize in-person meetup events with people:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback, Rocio! It seems to me that expanding the “safe to gather” criteria in this way, asking that people only attend in-person meetups if they are:
Fully vaccinated
Recently tested and negative
Recently recovered (less than three months)
would be more reflective of the public health policy of more regions in the world.
I’d be in favor of expanding the safety criteria in this way. What do others think?
Hmm, in Europe it’s quite tricky because every country has some specific criteria. At the moment in Serbia, we have quite weird rules, night clubs no-mask, shopping mall YES SIR ! 😀 But we also have a digital certificate with all the information mentioned above, tested, vaccinated, or recovered which will become European standard and we could also consider the country’s infection zone ( Green > Purple I believe ) where Green countries are the safe ones and Purple are the ones in Risk.
If there is anything I can help you with on this matter, I’m eager to help.
Being vaccinated does not mean that we not get sick from covid. The vaccine is not 100% efficient and people with health risks: obesity, diabetes, hypertension or immune deficiencies even after being vaccinated have a high risk of hospitalization or death.
Excluding un-vaccinated people from any wp activity violates the principle of accessibility. “meetup group is open to all who wish to join, regardless of ability, skill, financial status or any other criteria”.
I agree with you that being vaccinated doesn’t guarantee 100% prevention of COVID, but it does help immensely, especially with the most severe side effects.
I disagree with you though, in that I don’t see this step as exclusionary. Instead, I think it’s a way to allow more paths to connect over WordPress, in a way that addresses the real risk of spreading COVID to those who haven’t been vaccinated, whatever the reason. Given that online events are going to continue, I don’t see how this approach conflicts with program guidelines. In fact, I think it helps make events even more accessible.
Agree with you Cami, stats are showing interesting numbers like 99,5% of hospitalized in my country recently are not vaccinated and 99,8% of unfortunately passed away, were not vaccinated, so it’s not 100% but close to 100%
“No organizer should request or collect information from members about their vaccination status.”
It’s a quite popular practice in Poland to gather contact information (name, phone and address) and fill a simple health survey. All just in case to be able to contact all people and get them quarantined if needed. Of course those information can’t be used for marketing purposes.
Personally I think that is a very reasonable approach.
I agree that collecting contact information, certainly in case of infection, for contact tracing, is very reasonable! Are you required to ask the health questions, or is it just common practice? 🙂
Overall in Poland the problem is a bit related with the way how the laws about COVID were introduced (in short – in a quite bad way which resulted in many cases against country that were won by the people).
So there is a chance that it is something required but not everyone was doing such a thing (and it didn’t result with any consequences).
Thanks for this post, @andreamiddleton! I appreciate all the hard work and discussions behind this post and I think this is the right way forward for our program, and I’m excited about in-person events coming back (and I can’t wait to meet our local community members in-person)! 😍
As a Meetup organizer, I wouldn’t be organizing in-person events (or attending any for that matter) anytime soon – because, all across India, vaccine access and testing are quite limited at this time. I personally intend to wait it out till we have free availability of vaccines and testing, along with eased local government restrictions (currently meetings of all kinds are banned in many parts of India including my state/city), so that I can organize in-person events as mentioned in these guidelines. On the other hand, online meetups have brought a lot of new people into our community, which has been a happy coincidence! My local meetup just discovered Clubhouse and we have had some exciting engagement there!
I’m really looking forward to the transition from online to in-person events and I’m curious to see how it is going to look like! 🙂
Thank you to everyone for your feedback here!
Based on this input, we have adjusted (edit) the decision as follows:
If:
ALSO… If:
Local community organizers can (if they want to) plan in-person meetup events for people who:
while always following local health guidelines!
Here is an updated version of the graphic, for your convenience:
Top comment
View in context
@andreamiddleton I made a change to the tl;dr based on this morning’s team chat. I changed the tl;dr to specifically say meetup events. It would be great if you would update the amazing flowchart as well. There was some confusion as ‘events’ implied more than just meetups.
Oh! Thank you so much, @kcristiano — I appreciate your quick work to clear up confusion on that point. Will update the flow chart ASAP!
Updated the image at 15:54 UTC today.
I wanted to highlight this question from @swissspidy on Twitter, about this decision.
The question of recently negative COVID tests, or the new EU Digital COVID Certificate app, didn’t come up in the discussion of this topic in May, probably because it wasn’t widely adopted yet.
If there are WP community organizers who’d like to suggest adding “recently tested negative for COVID” (in an area where testing is freely available) as an alternative to full vaccination, could you please comment here?
“Recently tested negative for COVID” implies someone has to show a negative test result, which would be illegal in most European countries.
However, this is exactly what the CoronaCheck (aka EU Digital Covid Certificate) app solves. Instead of asking for medical information, it simply tells the checker (e.g. an event organizer) this person is cleared for access to your event. How that clearance is achieved (through a recent negative PCR test, by recent recovery from COVID, or being fully vaxxed) isn’t disclosed. Therefore the event organizer doesn’t handle any medical data.
Looking at the rules and regulations in The Netherlands, I don’t think I’d even be allowed to organize a meetup at our regular venue without using the free ‘testing for access’ service.
Thanks for weighing in here, Taco! Now that I’ve thought about this for a few days, it seems like relying on the CoronaCheck app in Europe isn’t just a convenience, but a necessity, for local organizers in countries using that app. And how convenient that your regular venue would check the info on people’s apps for you!
Since Rocio’s comment included a proposed change, which I think matches how you think we could change this approach to in-person meetup safety, I’ll reply to her comment with my feedback. 🙂
Thank you for the post and the proposal, Andrea!
I agree with the proposal, but I’d like to add some thoughts about @swissspidy‘s comment on Twitter 🙂
In several countries of EU, there are free quick tests at the door of many places: theatres, restaurants, etc. people take a quick test and if they’re negative, they can enter the place.
The proposal is not taking into account these other solutions that are already working very well in many countries in the EU.
Another example, In Spain, events are allowed to everyone but people outside their bubble have to sit down with a distance of 1.5 meters when it’s outdoors, and wearing masks plus the distance if it’s indoors.
In order to have into consideration these other realities, I’d propose to change your flow chart including this:
“Are vaccines or quick tests freely available to all?”
If yes:
“Organize in-person meetup events with people:
Hope this helps! and +1 to this proposal! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback, Rocio! It seems to me that expanding the “safe to gather” criteria in this way, asking that people only attend in-person meetups if they are:
would be more reflective of the public health policy of more regions in the world.
I’d be in favor of expanding the safety criteria in this way. What do others think?
This sounds like a reasonable and responsible way forward to me. I’m on board with updating the criteria in this way.
I agree with updating the criteria as described above.
Rocio’s suggestion is clear and concise. I am in agreement with expanding the criteria as described above.
Hmm, in Europe it’s quite tricky because every country has some specific criteria. At the moment in Serbia, we have quite weird rules, night clubs no-mask, shopping mall YES SIR ! 😀 But we also have a digital certificate with all the information mentioned above, tested, vaccinated, or recovered which will become European standard and we could also consider the country’s infection zone ( Green > Purple I believe ) where Green countries are the safe ones and Purple are the ones in Risk.
If there is anything I can help you with on this matter, I’m eager to help.
Just wanted to say I appreciate this decision and the further discussion here regarding negative tests.
Being vaccinated does not mean that we not get sick from covid. The vaccine is not 100% efficient and people with health risks: obesity, diabetes, hypertension or immune deficiencies even after being vaccinated have a high risk of hospitalization or death.
Excluding un-vaccinated people from any wp activity violates the principle of accessibility. “meetup group is open to all who wish to join, regardless of ability, skill, financial status or any other criteria”.
I agree with you that being vaccinated doesn’t guarantee 100% prevention of COVID, but it does help immensely, especially with the most severe side effects.
I disagree with you though, in that I don’t see this step as exclusionary. Instead, I think it’s a way to allow more paths to connect over WordPress, in a way that addresses the real risk of spreading COVID to those who haven’t been vaccinated, whatever the reason. Given that online events are going to continue, I don’t see how this approach conflicts with program guidelines. In fact, I think it helps make events even more accessible.
Agree with you Cami, stats are showing interesting numbers like 99,5% of hospitalized in my country recently are not vaccinated and 99,8% of unfortunately passed away, were not vaccinated, so it’s not 100% but close to 100%
“No organizer should request or collect information from members about their vaccination status.”
It’s a quite popular practice in Poland to gather contact information (name, phone and address) and fill a simple health survey. All just in case to be able to contact all people and get them quarantined if needed. Of course those information can’t be used for marketing purposes.
Personally I think that is a very reasonable approach.
I agree that collecting contact information, certainly in case of infection, for contact tracing, is very reasonable! Are you required to ask the health questions, or is it just common practice? 🙂
Overall in Poland the problem is a bit related with the way how the laws about COVID were introduced (in short – in a quite bad way which resulted in many cases against country that were won by the people).
So there is a chance that it is something required but not everyone was doing such a thing (and it didn’t result with any consequences).
Thank you to everyone for your feedback here!
Based on this input, we have adjusted (edit) the decision as follows:
If:
ALSO… If:
Local community organizers can (if they want to) plan in-person meetup events for people who:
while always following local health guidelines!
Here is an updated version of the graphic, for your convenience:
thanks it helped. y2convert
Thanks for this post, @andreamiddleton! I appreciate all the hard work and discussions behind this post and I think this is the right way forward for our program, and I’m excited about in-person events coming back (and I can’t wait to meet our local community members in-person)! 😍
As a Meetup organizer, I wouldn’t be organizing in-person events (or attending any for that matter) anytime soon – because, all across India, vaccine access and testing are quite limited at this time. I personally intend to wait it out till we have free availability of vaccines and testing, along with eased local government restrictions (currently meetings of all kinds are banned in many parts of India including my state/city), so that I can organize in-person events as mentioned in these guidelines. On the other hand, online meetups have brought a lot of new people into our community, which has been a happy coincidence! My local meetup just discovered Clubhouse and we have had some exciting engagement there!
I’m really looking forward to the transition from online to in-person events and I’m curious to see how it is going to look like! 🙂